Innocence
by FanGirl590
Summary: Camilla Dawne is a young girl, who's never seen the world outside of a metal can. All she knows how to do is to listen to her mother or pay the consequences. And keep her powers hidden. When her already hectic, dysfunctional life is interrupted by some unexpected visitors, she discovers a new power she never even knew she had, which leads to the X-Men discovering her. R
1. Chapter 1

Innocence

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men.

Chapter 1

I lay silently in my bunk as the floor of the RV rocked gently beneath me as we drove along. It was dark outside and the RV stank from whatever Mama was cooking in her pot. We almost never stopped driving. Not unless it was to get food from a gas station or to stop by a casino or sometimes a supermarket. I wasn't sure why that was. It was just the way things were, I guess.

In the bunk beneath mine, I heard my brother, Danny, whimpering and I rolled over to look at him. Danny didn't look anything like me. He had red hair, big ears, and was covered in freckles. Sometimes I wondered if he really was my brother, but then I remembered the things we had in common: Our bright blue eyes and our secret, which wasn't a secret anymore.

Danny wasn't as good at hiding it as I was, so Mama had found out. She always said she was glad she had such good kids. She said she wouldn't put up with no kids who were different – like homosexual or something like that. Danny was different, though, and now she knew. And Boston said Danny had to go.

Boston wasn't my dad. He wasn't Danny's dad, either, but Mama said he loved us. Except he didn't love Danny anymore because he knew Danny had the scales now and was getting more every day.

I had tried to teach Danny to make the scales go away, even though I didn't have them myself, but he wouldn't listen and just kept saying over and over he couldn't make them go away. That's why Mama and Boston had found out.

They only knew about Danny, though.

I was still safe because I was good at hiding it.

"'Milla," Danny whimpered up at me from his bunk below mine.

"Would you kids shut up back there?" Mama barked at us from her place over the stove.

I looked from Mama to Danny and back again. Then I reached out from under the blanket and took Danny's hand in my own. Pale blue scales wound up his arms in tiny patches.

I smiled at him silently.

"I'm scared, 'Milla," Danny whispered to me. There were tears in his eyes.

I frowned and shook my head. There was no reason for him to be scared. Sure, Mama and Boston were mad now, but they'd get it over. Eventually. They had to. Mama especially. That's just what mamas did.

That's what all the ones on TV were like and so was ours. She wasn't exactly the same as the ones we watched in the shows every morning. But she loved us. She loved Danny.

Suddenly, the RV came to a halt and I sat up silently.

Mama turned off whatever she was cooking and began muttering something I couldn't hear.

I looked down at Danny and our blue eyes locked. "Stay," I whispered.

I jumped down from my bunk and ran over to the window. I couldn't see much in the dark. There weren't streetlights anywhere, but I could just barely make out the outline of a car. I thought there was someone out by the car, but I couldn't tell.

"Camilla!" Mama snapped at me as she pulled her coat on. "Would you get away from there?"

I turned away from the window and looked at her. "Who is out there, Mama?"

Mama glared at me. "None of your damn business," she told me angrily. "Now, go lay down."

I frowned at her. "But Mama –"

"You heard your mother," Boston called from the front of the RV. "Now, lay the hell down before I drag you back there by the hair on your fucking head!"

I bit my lip and nodded. I went back to my bunk and lay down. I looked down at Danny and whispered as quietly as I could, "Someone's out there."

Mama walked over to the bunks, carrying a plastic bag in her hand. She pulled open one of the plastic drawers in the small dresser beside the bunks and began to fill the bag.

"What are you doing, Mama?" I asked, watching her.

As soon the words left my mouth, Mama had straightened up and was standing over me with her hand raised. "It's none of your business what I'm doing," she said, grabbing me by the scruff of my shirt. "Now, go to fucking sleep!" She let go of me. Then she bent down and grabbed Danny by the arm and pulled him into a sitting position. "Get up," she told him. "Come on now. Get up."

Danny looked at her and shook his head. "I don't wanna," he said. "I'm tired. I want to sleep."

"I don't give a crap what you want," Mama said angrily. "I'm the parent. You do as I say and I say you get the hell up." She jerked him to his feet and he let out a loud cry.

I reached out to grab to Danny's hand as Mama pulled him away from me – his fingers were only a few inches from mine. I wasn't fast enough, though, and Danny was crying as Mama forced his shoes and coat on him.

"You better hurry up," Boston said over Danny's shrieks and cries. "This guy ain't gonna wait forever."

"I'm freaking hurrying," Mama snapped at him.

Danny was on the floor now, though, clawing at everything within arm's reach as Mama pulled him towards the door of the RV. "'Milla!" he screamed as she wrenched the door opened and dragged him outside by his legs.

The door swung shut and I jumped to my feet. I ran to the door with tears in my eyes as I tried to get some last glimpse of Danny as he screamed for me. I pressed the palm of my hand against the glass of the door and whispered quietly as I sobbed, "Danny -"

Within an instant Boston had grabbed me and thrown me against the hard, metal dining booth where we ate dinner every night. "Didn't I fucking tell you to get your ass to bed?!" he shouted at me. He grabbed me by my arm, pulled me to my feet, and half-dragged me back to the bunks. He threw me back into my bunk.

I looked up at him. "But Danny –"

"Danny's going away," Boston spat at me angrily. "And if you don't fucking behave, then you'll go away, too – you got that?"

I stared up at him with tears on my cheeks, confused. I didn't know what to say as I watched him stomp back to the front of the RV. "But Danny's my brother," I said finally after what seemed like forever.

It was the only thing I could think to say. It was one of the few things that had always made sense in my life. Just like Mama was my mama and Boston wasn't my daddy, Danny was my brother. He didn't look like me, but he was and that was all that mattered.

Wasn't it?

"Danny isn't your brother no more, Camilla," Boston said as he sat down in the driver's seat of the RV. "He's in someone else's family now, got it?"

* * *

Three Years Later

It was dark inside the RV and out. All of the doors and windows were open to let the heat out. It was the first time in ages the place didn't stink.

Blazing candles formed the numbers one and three on a miniature cake that sat on the table in front of me. Mama and some nameless bleach-blond guy I had never seen before sat on the other side, smiling at me as they sang. Mama said that he was a friend and that he might come with us after we left Vegas.

Boston was gone. He had left about a year ago. I wasn't sure why. I just remembered him and Mama yelling a lot about money and stuff.

The song ended. "Happy birthday, 'Milla," Mama said to me.

I smiled at her and blew out the candles silently. Then I looked out the window as Mama began to cut the cake and go on about how happy she was and blah blah blah. From where we were parked, I could see the blinding lights of the Vegas Stripe perfectly. They lit up the night like some sort of gigantic, neon-colored fireflies and hurt my eyes to look at. It was still a comforting sight to look at, though.

Las Vegas had become the new constant in my life since Danny had left. It was the one place we kept coming back to, for some reason. Once when we were here for over a month, Mama even thought about enrolling me in a school – public, of course – but then she decided it would be better if I just stayed with the homeschooling. It was the only kind of school I'd ever been to, after all, so it sort of made since.

The area of the city we were in now, though, was not one I was familiar with. It was miles from the Stripe, but still bustling with people. There were lots of business buildings, and on the other side of the street was a bookstore with a newsstand set up out front and a small pawn shop beside it. I found it strange that Mama would pick a spot like this. With all the mutant talk that had been going on, she liked to stay as far away from the news as possible. I wasn't sure why.

I knew it brought up memories for me, but, mostly, it just made me grateful that I had been able to hide it. I had learned early on not to talk or think or wonder about Danny after he had left.

"Camilla, are you listening?"

I looked up to see Mama, reaching across the table with a box in her hand. I knew from the paper and bows that it was my present – I had only been getting these since Danny had gone. "Yes, Mama," I said, smiling at her.

Mama grinned. She knew I was lying, but she was just happy that I was obeying her rules. "Here then," she said, giving me the present. "And eat your cake, too." She pushed a plate of cake towards me as she stood up from the table.

"I hope you like it," Blondie smiled at me. "I helped pick it out." He gestured to the gift. "Your mama didn't know what to get you."

I nodded at him as I unwrapped it. "Thank you."

"You can't play with it tonight, though," Mama said from she where stood in the kitchen, crushing a little white pill into a fine powder. "I want you to hurry up and finish eating, so you can take your medicine and get to bed."

"Yes, Ma–" I fell silent as I finished unwrapping the gift and frowned down at it. It was one of those Pokemon games that were all over the internet right now. Normally, it would have been a great gift, but I didn't even have a system to play it on.

"What's the matter?" Mama asked, setting a down a glass of orange juice in front of me. "Don't you like it – did you like the other monster better?" She frowned at me.

I must have looked more disappointed than I thought. I smiled at her and shook my head. "No, I love it," I told her. "Thank you."

I'd be selling it at that pawn shop in the morning. She wouldn't know that, though.

"Good then," Mama said, sounding relieved. "Now, drink your juice, so you can go to bed – it's got your medicine in it."

I nodded silently and drank the juice. It tasted bitter from the pills. I had no idea what kind of medicine Mama gave me. All I knew was that I was sick and the medicine made me feel better. It made me sleep, though.

Usually, anyway.

* * *

I lay in bed silently. It was pitch black, but the noise from the city never ceased. The digital clock on the bunk below mine that Mama had managed to transform into a study area for me said that it was just past two in the morning. Sighing, I threw the blanket off and jumped down onto the cool, metal floor.

Mama and her friend had gone out somewhere. They'd probably be back soon. I didn't think most of the tourist spots even stayed open this late.

I walked to the little bathroom that was right beside my bed and closed the door behind me. I went over to the sink and turned the cold water on. I stood silently, letting the water run across my fingers. Then I scooped some water in my hands and splashed it on my face.

As soon as the water met my skin, the room filled with a loud crash and the sound of breaking glass. A small, round piece of concrete fell through the air and clattered noisily into the sink. Instinctively, I stumbled backwards into the shower and curled into a little ball on the tiled floor, holding my breath.

Seconds later, I heard the sounds of another window breaking. Outside, I could hear people – teenage boys, it sounded like – talking in drunken slurs, but I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. Then I heard the piercing sound of metal on metal as something collided over and over again with the door of the RV.

"Idiot!" I heard a muffled voice say. "Damn thing was already unlocked."

I froze as realization dawned on me: Those voices were much too close.

They were in the RV.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men.

Chapter 2

"Hey, check this out?" another voice said. "They left the keys in!"

My breathing quickened as the floor of the RV shuddered beneath me. I bit my tongue to keep from crying out as I was jerked forward unexpectedly and threw my hands out at the last minute to keep from slamming into the glass wall of the shower stall. I lowered myself slowly to my knees as the noises and voices from the other room were drowned out by the too loud rock music that blared from the stereo. One thought raced through my head over and over again: Not only were they in the RV, they were stealing it, too – Mama was gonna kill me.

If I ever saw her again.

Suddenly, there was a loud thud as something slammed hard against the bathroom door. Then I heard the sound of even more glass breaking. The sound made me cringe.

I sat silently on the floor, trying to think of what I should do. Any normal person would have called the cops, I guess, but the phone was in the other room and even if I had it with me, there was no way I could call them. Mama only had one really important rule and that rule was don't trust cops. Even if I lost I wasn't supposed to talk to them. There was no real reason behind the rule, but every person Mama had ever introduced me to agreed that cops could not be trusted.

Since I couldn't call the cops, that pretty much ruled out calling for help. Who else was there to call – Mama? I had no idea where she was or if I could even reach her. Mama didn't use a normal cell phone like most people. She used what was called a burner phone. It was a cheap, plastic cell phone that she could throw away after she was done using it. She said it was better than a regular cell phone because it was cheaper, and if she had already used up her last one, then there was no way I'd still be able to reach her - she'd have thrown the thing away already.

That left only one possibility: I had to try to stop them. I had never fought against anyone before and I wasn't exactly sure what to do, but it couldn't be that hard. They were only a bunch of drunken morons.

I pushed myself to my feet, trying to ignore the fact that I was shaking. I carefully stepped over the glass that covered the floor and grabbed the small, round piece of concrete that had broken the window out of the sink. Then I froze when I caught sight of my reflection. "Oh, no," I muttered in disbelief. I had lost control.

My normally blond hair was now stark white and the color of my skin had changed to match the pattern on the tiles behind me. Only my eyes were the same color that they usually were.

I stood silently, watching as all the color slowly drained from my skin until I was bright white like vanilla frosting. Like a ghost. How could this have happened – even in a situation like this? I almost never lost control.

"Whoa..."

I turned slowly to see a buck-toothed boy with spiky black hair standing in the doorway, gaping at me. "Are you a mutant?" the boy asked me.

Without thinking, I raised the concrete high above my head and lunged at the boy. He was too fast, though. Before I could even process what was happening, he was standing behind me, twisting my arm into a awkward position until I cried out and released the little stone.

"You trying to attack me?" the boy said twisting my other arm behind my back. "I don't think so, bitch!" He twisted my arms across one another and pulled me to my feet. Then he dragged me out to living room where he threw me to the floor.

The music in the room was lowered to a dull roar as I looked around silently. There were broken dishes on the floor, pots and pans had been thrown everywhere, and glass from the other window they'd broken decorated the floor of the kitchen. On the counter by the stove there were two six-packs of beer and a small bag of something that looked like rock candy. They had broken the TV, movies had been tossed out of the cases and now littered the floor, and Mama's papers – receipts and stuff like there – covered just about every inch of furniture. Basically, the place was trashed.

"Who the hell is this?"

I looked up. The RV had come to stop now and there were three boys in front of me other than the buck-toothed one. One was tall and skinny with short black hair, another had long blond hair, and the last one was shorter with multicolored hair. He was the one that had just spoken and he was carrying a crowbar.

"Found her in the bathroom," Beaver told him, nodding at where he had found me. "Bitch tried to attack me. She's a freaking mutant."

The blond-haired boy knelt down in front of me with a look on his face like he was studying a science experiment. "A mutant?" he said. "How can you tell – could just be an albino or something."

"Man, you ain't never seen an albino before in your life," the tall skinny boy said to him. "How would you know – "

"Dude," Beaver said, cutting him off. "Five seconds before she tried to attack me, her freaking skin was checkered patterned – she's gotta be a mutant. Like a changeling or something."

I glared at him. He had been there _that_ long?

The boy with the multicolored hair pushed the others aside and bent down in front of me. "You know something?" he said, reaching out and running his hands through my long, white silvery hair. I wanted to reach out and hit him, but I couldn't. Something deep inside of me told me that was a bad idea. Somehow, I knew, that like the other boy, this would be faster and stronger than me. "I don't like mutants," he hissed at me in low, drawn out whisper. He grabbed me by my hair, lifting me off my feet, and threw me into the tiny kitchen that was right beside us.

I collided with the counter, hitting my head hard, and slamming shut a few of the drawers they'd had gone through. One of them slammed shut on my hair. Shaking, I reached out to try and pull my hair out, but Rainbow reached out and grabbed me by the shirt, then slammed my head back into the counter again.

I looked up at him through teary eyes. I couldn't believe this. All I had wanted to do was try to save my home, so Mama wouldn't be mad at me. I couldn't even do that.

Rainbow glared down at me and raised his crowbar high above his head. As he brought it down to hit me, I threw my arms over my head to shield myself, and then – nothing.

I looked up silently. Just above my head in exactly the spot Rainbow's crowbar would have hit me was a thin, blue wall of nothingness. It seemed to be sort of shield. I stared at silently, gaping. I had never seen anything like it before. What was happening – what was it doing there?

After a few seconds, the shield faded away and Rainbow stood over me, panting heavily. He threw his weapon to the floor and grabbed me by my shirt again. "What the fuck was that?" he demanded. "Are you trying to make me look stupid – is that it? Huh, you think just because you're a mutant, I won't beat the crap out of you?"

I tried open my mouth to speak – to explain that I had no idea what shield was, but words would come out. So I shook my head silently instead.

"You better freaking answer me!" Rainbow said, shaking me. He raised his hand to hit me again and I moved to push him away. As I did so, a second square, blue wall shot out from the tips of my fingers and pushed him away from me, slamming him hard into the living room wall on the opposite side of the RV.

The other boys, who hadn't moved at all during all the commotion – they had merely stood, watching stupidly – looked from me to Rainbow and back again silently.

I stared down at my hands silently. What was happening?

Then we heard it. The sound all of us feared: Sirens.

The police were coming.

A/N: I apologize for how short this chapter is. I had intended for there to be a lot more to be happening in this chapter, but it will just have to wait for the third one, I'm afraid.  
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I appreciate your kind words and critique. I hope you keep reading.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men.

Chapter 3

Within a matter of the seconds, the boys who had broken in were gone. Except for Rainbow, who was still pinned against the wall beneath the blue...Something. I had never seen anything like it before.

I watched silently as the blue thing slowly faded away just like the shield had and Rainbow slid to the floor, groaning. What was happening?

"Hey, we know you're in there!"

I jumped as I heard the sound a man shouting. Silently, I pulled my hair out of the drawer and stood up. I walked over to the window. It was a tall, dark-haired cop that was speaking into a mega-phone. There were two cop cars parked on either side of the RV and four cops total.

I shrank away from the window, but it was too late. The one with the mega-phone had already seen me.

"Come out now with your hands raised," the cop said into the mega-phone. "Or else we will place you under arrest."

I stared at him in disbelief. They couldn't do that – I was the victim here. Those boys were the ones who had broken in. They couldn't arrest me. Could they?

Sighing, I raised my hands high above my head and walked to the front door of the RV, squinting against the siren lights. Before I even had time to think, a tall blond hair cop had grabbed me and pinned me against the wall, twisting my arm behind my back. "My name is Officer Jennifer Simons," she said in a stern voice, pinning my arms behind me with one hand and patting me down the other. "Tell me who you are."

I glared at her. It was no wonder Mama didn't like cops.

She finished the pat down and pressed me harder against the RV. "Miss, if you don't tell me who you are, I will be forced to hold you in contempt of court," she told me.

I pressed my head against the cool metal of the RV, my eyes watering with furious tears of disbelief. First, the trouble with my powers and now this. I shook my head. "I don't know what that means," I admitted to her, knowing Mama would kill me if she ever knew I'd spoken one word to her – a cop.

"It means you go to juvie," Officer Simons said. "We can't take you to jail because you're a minor, but if you attempt to interfere in our investigation of this incident - by refusing to speak to us, for example - you'll be held in a juvenile detention facility as a civil contemner."

I raised my eyebrows at her. "What incident?" I asked her. The thing with my powers?

"This vehicle was reported stolen," she explained to me.

"By who?" I said. "I didn't report nothing."

And I knew Mama sure as heck wouldn't have.

Officer Simons loosened her grip on me a little. "You live here then?" she asked. There was a long moment of silence and she went on when I didn't answer, "Some tourists down on E. James Avenue witnessed a group of teenagers breaking in and taking off with this vehicle. They reported it."

I nodded silently. Damn tourists.

Suddenly, the cop with the mega-phone appeared behind us. "You get anything out of her?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "No, sir," she said. "I believe she takes up residency in this vehicle, though."

The man looked at me. "You live here?" he asked me.

I looked away from him and nodded.

"Alright then," he said, nodding. "Are your parents home?"

I shrugged silently. "Got no idea where Mama went," I said, sighing. It was better that she wasn't home, though. If she had seen what had happened with those blue things, I'd end up like...

The man turned to the Officer Simons. "Let her go," he said and she released me. Then he turned back to me. "Can we have your permission to search the premises, miss?"

I didn't really think I had a choice in the matter.

I nodded. "There's a boy inside," I said. "He's one of the ones that broke in."

"Good," the cop said, as he waved the other police officers other. "Thank you." He turned back to the blond cop. "You take down her information." Then he led the rest of the cops into the RV.

Officer Simons turned to me, pulling out a small pad of paper and a pen. "Name?" she asked.

"Camilla Dawne," I told her. "D-A-W-N-E."

"Date of birth?"

I narrowed my eyes at her and resisted the urge to ask why she needed to know all this stuff, anyway. "November 12, 2000."

She looked up at me. "So that'd make you, what – thirteen?"

"Just turned."

She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off as a third cop half-dragged Rainbow down the stairs of the RV.

"Hey!" Rainbow screamed as the cop led him over to one of the police cars. He nodded at me. "I wanna press charges against that mutant bitch – she assaulted me!" The cop shoved him inside the car silently and slammed the door shut.

Officer Simons cleared her throat and I looked back at her silently. "Can you tell me who your parents are?" she asked me.

I looked down at my feet. A lump had formed in my throat and the tears were running down my cheeks now. I didn't know whether or not Rainbow could press charges against me. It had been an accident, but the thought still scared me. If he was allowed to press charges, then Mama would know.

"Camilla?" Officer Simons prompted me, breaking my train of thought.

I nodded and wiped the tears away. "Mama's name is Sharon Dawne."

"And your father?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

Officer Simons nodded as she wrote everything down. "Do you have any other relatives we should know about?" she asked, looking up at me.

I locked eyes with her. "A brother," I told her. "Daniel Dawne."

Officer Simons frowned, but wrote it down anyway. "And where is he now?"

"I'm sorry, but we're going to have to continue this conversation later."

I looked up to see the cop with the mega-phone standing in the doorway. The last cop who was a small Hispanic woman, pushed past him and rushed back to her cop car, carrying something.

The dark-haired cop thrust his mega-phone at Officer Simons and took her notepad away from her. He flipped through the pages quickly and turned to me, shoving the notepad inside his pocket. "Camilla Dawne," he said, grabbing me by the wrist and spinning me around. "You're going down town with us."

I looked at him, frowning. "Why - what for?"

He snapped the handcuffs around my wrists. "Possession," he said simply as he pulled me away from the RV. He led me over to the car that was nearest to us.

I stared at the letters LVPD as Officer Simons pulled open the door of the car. "Possession of what?" I asked, looking from one cop to another.

* * *

I sat in a small, square room. It was empty, except for a large metal with three chairs and a big, long mirror that hung on the wall across from me. I stared at my reflection silently.

My control over my powers had been fluctuating all night. I thought I had got it back in the car, but lost it again once I saw that "down town" had actually meant the police station. I'd thought they would be taking me to juvie or something. Then I mostly got it back after they put me in a tiny jail cell, far away from everyone else that had been arrested that night – because I was a teenager, I guess – but then I lost control when they said a detective wanted to speak to me. Now, I was back to looking like a ghost. It was just the way I was going to have to look, too. For now.

"Miss Dawne?"

I looked up silently. A tall man with auburn hair was standing across the table from me. He had a folder in one hand and a small badge in his other. "My name is Detective Murrows," he said, sitting down in the chair across from mine. "Do you know what methamphetamine is?"

I shook my head.

Detective Murrows shook his head, frowning. "You never learned about it in school?"

"I'm home-schooled," I said. "Should I have?"

"Yes," Murrows said, nodding. "You really should have. It's what the police officers found in your RV – "

"Mama's RV," I corrected him quickly. "It's her home. I just live there."

Murrows frowned at me. "I thought you had lived in that thing your whole life. Did she really say that to you?"

I looked away from him silently, down at my fingernails. I could feel my face burning up. I had no idea why I had told him that. It was no one's business but my own, so why bother sharing?

Murrows sighed. "Methamphetamine is an illegal drug that we found in your mother's RV. Now, we don't think it's yours, but we are required to test you anyway."

"If it's illegal, then it belongs to those boys," I said, looking up at him. "They broke into the RV. They must have brought it with them."

Murrows nodded. "We've considered that possibility as well and we've already started the test on the boy that was brought in."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "But?"

Murrows sighed again and shook his head. "You mentioned to Officer Simons that you had a brother named Daniel Dawne. Where is he now?"

I shook my head, partially in disbelief. I couldn't believe he was changing the subject. Then again, I was having a hard believing half the things that had happened tonight. "I don't know where he is."

"Is he with your mother?" Murrows asked.

I looked away from him. "I'm not supposed to talk about Danny."

Murrows raised his eyebrows at me this time. "Why is that?" he asked. "Did he leave or run away?"

I stared at my hands silently. I had told them too much. I never should have talked to these people. Never, never, never. Mama was gonna be mad at me.

"Camilla?"

I looked up at him. "No," I said in a somewhat strained voice.

Murrows frowned, looking confused. "Then where he is?"

I avoided his eyes, unsure of why I was still talking. "He went to live with someone else."

"Someone else," Murrow repeated. "Who – your father or grandparents, maybe, or some other relative?"

I shook my head. "A stranger. I didn't know him. I don't think Mama knew him too well, either."

Now, Murrows looked really confused. "If she didn't know him, then why would she give her son to this person?" he asked. "Are you sure Danny wasn't taken away?"

I looked down. "Mama took him." I knew I had said something I shouldn't have. Mama would kill me if she knew. My voice felt stuck as I spoke.

"But you're not supposed to talk about that," Murrows said, nodding. "Why did your mother give Danny away?"

"Mama found out."

"Found out what, Camilla – you've got to give me more to work with if you want help."

I looked up at him in disbelief. "What are you talking about?" I said. "The police don't help people."

Murrows looked uncomfortable and cleared his throat. "What did your mother find out, Camilla?" he repeated.

I focused my attention on my reflection in the mirror on the other side of the room. The more I focused, the more I could see the tiny patch of peach color spreading on my skin and the roots of my hair turning blond. "Danny was different," I said simply, surprised at how easily the words came out.

"Different," Murrows said, nodding. "Different, how – do you mean that he was a mutant like you?"

I narrowed my eyes at my reflection, watching the color spread. I didn't understand why I was telling this man anything. Maybe because I was just that stupid. Or afraid. He'd use my silence against me – it's what the police did. "I don't know what his powers were. He was gone before I had a chance to find out. He might not have even had any. Just the scales."

"But you do have powers," Murrows said. "And you attacked the boy who broke into your mother's RV." He looked up at me. "Was it an accident?"

I looked up at him and opened my mouth to speak.

"That's enough."

I looked up to see a tall, balding man with mousy hair standing in the doorway. "Miss Dawne," he said, "I'm Chief Wess. There are some people here to see you –"

"Is it Mama?" I asked him, cutting him off.

The chief frowned and shook his head. "I'm gonna be straight with you, Miss Dawne," he said. "We haven't been able to find your mother, but we are doing an investigation to find her. I really can't tell you more than that. The people that want to see you have come a very long way. They're mutant specialists, I guess you could call them, and they want to speak with you about what happened earlier tonight."

I stared at him for a moment uncertainly. I had never known there was such a thing as mutant specialists. "You mean the thing that happened with my powers?"

"Yes," Chief Wess said, nodding. "That is what I'm talking about. The boy we arrested informed us of the incident."

"I'm not gonna be in trouble, am I?" I asked. "Be-because what happened was an accident." I looked from Wess to Murrows and back again.

"It's nothing like that," Chief Wess assured me. "These people just want to talk to you."

They just wanted to talk. They just wanted to talk.

I nodded silently.

"Okay then," Chief Wess said, smiling. "Detective Murrows, you will come with me and I want you to wait here, Miss Dawne, while I fetch your guests." He beckoned to Murrows, who stood and followed him out of the room.

I stood up and walked across the room to the mirror. I pressed my palm against the glass and stared at my reflection with my breath caught in my throat. Wess had surprised me when he came in and broken my concentration. All the color was again.

On top of that, I could feel a pressure building - like someone had set a weight on my chest that was too heavy for me to lift. I knew I had told Murrows too much – said things I shouldn't have said. He was going to use those things against me and against Mama. And now, mutant specialists – there was no such thing. And even if there were, it couldn't be good. It just couldn't. Why else would I feel like I had to run – run now or let everything change?

"I think the real question here, Miss Dawne, is do you _want_ to let everything change?"

A/N: Thank you for all your reviews. I appreciate the support very much.  
I apologize for how long it took me to post this. This chapter was very difficult for me to write, but I hope you've enjoyed it.  
Thank you.


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